Hospital inside mall shocks all as 10 patients die in Mumbai fire

10 patients died in a fire that broke out at the Sunrise Hospital in the Dreams Mall building in Bhandup area of Mumbai shortly after midnight on Thursday, fire official said. However, the question on everyone’s mind is how come a a hospital was operating from the top floor of a mall? Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar, who visited the site, also expressed surprise that a hospital was operating from inside the mall.

“I have seen a hospital at a mall for the first time,” the mayor said, adding action will be taken if irregularities were found in allowing the facility to operate there, reports new agency PTI.

The hospital, in a statement, said the hospital was started last year in “exceptional circumstances” of the pandemic and has helped save many lives. “The hospital is functioning with all due compliances like fire licence, nursing home licence among others,” it said.

Giving details of the incident, the statement said, “There was a fire on the first floor of Dreams Mall, Bhandup and the smoke reached up to the Sunrise Hospital located at the top floor. When fire alarms beeped, all patients were safely evacuated to the fire refuge area as the smoke was reaching the hospital.”

The hospital fire comes amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in India. More than 59,000 cases were reported from the country on Thursday with more than half of them from Maharashtra. Mumbai logged 5,504 new infections, the highest daily count since the pandemic began.

The cause of the ‘level four’ fire (serious emergency call in fire brigade parlance) has not been ascertained yet, municipal body BMC said. Twenty fire engines, 15 water tankers and ambulances were rushed to the spot.

A civic official said the BMC had issued notice to the mall in November last year for allegedly flouting fire safety norms. Former NCP MP Sanjay Dina Patil said he had also written to the BMC commissioner last year drawing the civic body’s attention to the flouting of fire safety norms there.